A stury on sustainable evaluation of agricultural activity in the rural area: Ecological footprint and energy flow model approach
2005
Takahashi, Y. (Hokkaido Univ., Sapporo (Japan))
Two are the main objectives of this study. The first is to evaluate agricultural activity from the view point of the carrying capasity concept in rural area of China. The second is to find important factors for inhabitants to keep sustainability. This study consist of six chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the problems of this study. Chapter 2 introduces the concept of sustainability and rerationship between environmental economics and ecological economics. Chapter 3 introduces our study area in China. Chapter 4 calculate carrying capacity of these colonies with Ecological Footprint. Chapter 5 simulate energy variation with Emergy Flow Model. Finally, in the last Chapter, conclusions of this study have been explained in detail. The main results of this study are as follows. (1) The inhabitants of the four villages need spatial ecosystem support -the ecological footprint- 0.8 to 2.1 times the surface area of each village. (2) The current population of the four villages is 1.4 to 2.3 times the population that a spatial ecosystem can support. (3) The energy of forest recovers some energies (crops, livestock, farmers can use). These results suggest that some policies for controlling the inhabitants' activities, such as over-harvesting of timber, and increasing agricultural productivity such as, diffusing knowledge of agricultural technologies, are urgently required.
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